Perovskite solar cells soar to brand-new heights

• Metal halide perovskites have actually been under intense investigation over the last decade, due to the amazing surge in their performance in optoelectronic tools such as solar cells or light-emitting diodes.

One of the most efficient gadgets, made in the so called 'typical design' generally include handling steps carried out at heat, therefore boosting their power repayment time and limiting the opportunity to incorporate them in arising applications such as versatile and wearable electronics. An alternate tool design - called the 'inverted design' - gets rid of the demand for high temperature processing, however generally results in a lower solar effectiveness.

In a joint collective initiative between the University of Pavia (Italy) and the Technische Universitat Dresden (Germany), researchers have actually created an unique technique to dramatically boost the effectiveness of upside down architecture solar cells. The approach is based upon a modification of the interfaces of the perovskite active layer by introducing percentages of organic halide salts at both the bottom and the top of the perovskite layer.

Such organic halide salts, usually utilized for the formation of two-dimensional perovskites, resulted in the suppression of microstructural flaws and passivation of the defects of the perovskite layer. Utilizing this strategy, the group has actually accomplished a power conversion performance of 23.7% - the highest reported to date for an upside down architecture perovskite solar cell.

"Notably, the enhancement in performance is accompanied by a rise in gadget security" claims Prof. Giulia Grancini, an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pavia. Taking into consideration that stability stays one of the key hurdles for the commercialization of perovskite solar cells, the simultaneous enhancement of efficiency and stability is especially appealing.

"The reality that our gadgets are produced at reduced temperatures of less than 100 C and that our approach is fully suitable to the fabrication of big area gadgets takes us one action more detailed to large-scale usage of perovskite solar cells" adds Prof. Yana Vaynzof, Chair for Arising Electronic Technologies at the Institute for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials and the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed).

The record performance accomplished by the scientists brings perovskite solar cells to new frontiers. Taking into consideration the enhanced stability and the scalability of the novel strategy, it's just a matter of time up until perovskite solar cells can be found on every rooftop.